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04 August 2008

SEND WHUFFLES NOW! SEND THEM NOW!RIGHT NOW!→[More:]

I've had a horrible day today and feel completely discombobulated.

The contractors started today on the building work to my flat, to repair a crack in the wall caused by tree roots.

So, 9am I get a call in the office from the builder. He's a sub-contractor, and the main contractor had told him that the flat was empty and unoccupied. Where they got that idea from I don't know.

But anyway, this bloke has arranged for a plumber to come in tomorrow and remove the boiler from the kitchen while the wall behind it is repaired. So no water. For most of this week.

I knew this was part of the job, but had been told by the insurers that I'd be given plenty of notice of this. They agreed to pay for a hotel, up to the cost of £50 per night. Now there is NOTHING in this area for £50 a night, except a DSS hostel-type place on the Romford Road in Forest Gate, and there's not a chance I'd stay in one of those. But there is a Holiday Inn Express about half a mile away, but it's £80 a night.

So after numerous phone calls back and forth with the insurers, they finally agreed that they had forgotten to tell me about this, and that, because of the short notice I can stay at the Holiday Inn for 3 nights, from tomorrow. It might be longer, and the insurers seem to think it'll be an easy thing for me to say 'oh, let me stay one more night', but the hotel said that they are usually fully booked over the weekend as that's their busiest time, what with people travelling to weddings and such. I also get £15 a day for meals. There's a carvery at the pub next door, so I'll eat there. But I have to pay for all this and then be reimbursed.

The cats will be fine. I confined them to the 'front half' of the flat today, with a litter box, and they can stay in those arrangements, drinking bottled water (but they had better not get a taste for it, or they can go and live with Madonna or somebody). I'll be here every evening and will let them have free run of the place, and go out through their cat flap, until morning, when I'll come back from the hotel and make them come in again.

So tonight I have to prepare all my lunches for the week and take them into work. I will be really popular, as our fridge is a 3ft cube, but I have got all my food for the week here and am not buying lunches out as well as dinner.

And I will also have to go into the office for FIVE DAYS this week!! Nooo! This will kill me.

I HATE UNEXPECTED CHANGE LIKE THIS!!
SEND ME A WHUFFLE! I NEED A WHUFFLE!

yoiks that's a big inconvenience! I'm sending over a big box of whuffles - you can take what you need now and just save the rest. I know it's the little things like this that can drive you nuts. I feel for you.

But at the risk of sounding like my mom - if that's the worst thing that happens to you, you're pretty damn lucky. Yes, my Mom made it real hard to complain about just about anything.

Whuff. Fle. There, there. Look on the bright side - you get to spend a couple of days playing hotel! Bring the cats! Crank the AC! Watch lots of TV! Jump on the beds! Wheeee! Hotel! Order room service - the little metal covers make even the most banal food seem special.

Hugh, a carvery is a restaurant where they have big pieces of roast meat that the chefs carve for you and you can choose which you want from beef, pork, turkey, lamb or ham - or have ANY COMBINATION of these - as much meat as you can stomach (I always have a mix, especially if there's lamb) and then there's a help-yourself buffet of Yorkshire Puddings, roast potatoes and lots of different vegetables and gravies.

Sometimes they're horrible, with food sitting round for hours, but my local one is always very good. It's part of the Toby chain, so it's mass-market, but if you're hankering after meat and veg, you can't go wrong with a carvery.